We didn’t know how loose the Nuggets were playing until we saw them at Oracle Thursday night on TNT. The Warriors needed a home win a lot more than the Nuggets needed a useless road victory, but while the Dubs played stiff while giving up a big second half lead, the Nuggets were loosey goosey in a surprise, 100-99, win. Kenneth Faried‘s game-winner with 0.5 seconds left is what put the Nugs over the top.
The Warriors shot out to a 28-15 first-quarter lead, but the Nuggets chipped away at it, winning each proceeding quarter behind a career night from Timofey Mozgov. The Nuggets also had to survive a late Stephen Curry scoop shot in traffic that gave the Dubs a 99-98 lead with just 4.7 seconds left.
But Faried struck with a jumper right in the grill of Draymond Green. The play was supposed to go back to Randy Foye after Faried caught the ball in the paint, but thankfully the Manimal free-styled his own contingency plan with a twisting turning move before rising up for the winning floater.
Denver is lottery bound after suffering through a tough injury bug this season (they only dressed nine players last night), and after the loss, the Dubs are now just a game ahead of Phoenix and Dallas and two games ahead of Memphis. As impossible as it sounds, it’s conceivable Golden State misses out on the playoffs if they suffer through a losing streak to end the year.
What do you think?
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